The Impact of Western Front on the Lives of British Soldiers at War 1914-1916
The Great War was a war of uncertainties. At 1914 the war set to end
by Christmas, but was still going by 1916 and the attitudes of war
lifestyle differed. The perspectives of the already-recruited soldiers
and the public in England, contrasted. Initially soldiers flocked to
join the army they had a vision of them returning as heroes also the
‘Pals Battalion’ scheme further encouraged people to recruit, as they
could be with friends and family in the Western Front which the public
saw as a great idea . The soldiers were enthusiastic, brimming with
‘war fever’ and had a great feeling of patriotism, even so that some
soldiers lied about their age to recruit in the British army. However,
as the soldiers already in the trenches knew, the reality of trench
warfare is grim. As they soon see the real trench warfare, with the
huge social, mental and physical impacts on the soldiers in the
Western Front.
The British soldiers in the western front were hugely affected
physically. The trenches were dug as a consequence of stalemate, where
both armies could not advance, so this was where the soldiers spent
most of their time. The conditions of these trenches affected the
soldiers immensely. The trenches were unhygienic, with many troops
living in close proximity, soldiers caught lice, and these lice were
irritating and led soldiers to loose morale. They were pale, and left
blotchy red bite marks all over the body, they caused frenzied
scratching and left a sour smell. The method of getting rid of these
lice was ‘chatting’ this was when the soldiers burned the lice with a
candle. This became a regular job, the trouble was that the lice laid
eggs in the seams of the clothing so no matter how much u washed and
shook your shirt there would always be a new-generation of eggs
waiting to hatch as soon as the shirt was put on again. Therefore this
affected the soldiers by leading them to loose their enthusiasm and
"Everywhere in the world was heard the sound of things breaking." Advanced European societies could not support long wars or so many thought prior to World War I. They were right in a way. The societies could not support a long war unchanged. The First World War left no aspect of European civilization untouched as pre-war governments were transformed to fight total war. The war metamorphed Europe socially, politicaly, economically, and intellectualy.
People did not expect the war to develop in the way it did. In 1914
World War I, also known as the Great War, lasted from the summer of 1914 until the late fall of 1918. The war was fought between the Allies, which consisted mainly of the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire, and the Central Powers, which consisted mainly of the German Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria (Alliances - Entente and Central Powers). In total, it is estimated that twelve million civilians and nine million combatants died during this horrific and devastating war (DeGroot 1). When the war first began in 1914, many people thought that it would be a war of movement that would quickly be over. However, that changed when the Germans, who were trying to reach and capture the city of Paris in France, were forced to retreat during the Battle of the Marne in September 1914 (Ellis 10). German General von Falkenhayn, who felt that his troops must at all cost hold onto the parts of France and Belgium that they had overtaken, ordered his men to dig in and form defensive trench lines (Ellis 10). The Allies could not break through the enemies lines and were forced to create trenches of their own (Ellis 10). This was only the beginning of trench warfare. A war of movement had quickly come to a standstill on the Western Front. A massive trench line, 475 miles long, quickly spread and extended from the North Sea to the Swiss Frontier (Ellis 10). With neither side budging, soldiers were forced to live in the most miserable of conditions. Simply put, life in the trenches was a living hell. A lieutenant of the 2nd Scottish rifles wrote, “No one who was not there can fully appreciate the excruciating agonies and misery through which the men had to go [through] in those da...
decided to join the army for a bit of an adventure for a few months,
Lost: unable to find one’s way; gone, no longer in existence; confused; destroyed; lacking morals, or spiritual hope; forlorn.(Encarta Dictionary) The word lost takes on a whole new, three-dimensional meaning when used to describe a generation of young soldiers in Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front. This fictional account of the First World War traces its effects on the protagonist, Paul Baumer, and his German comrades. As written in the preface, the novel is an attempt “to tell of a generation of men, who even though they may have escaped the shells, were destroyed by the war”. The author of All Quiet on the Western Front utilizes the brutality of war to demonstrate how young enlisters, as they become alienated from their past and future, learn of war’s terrible effects and consequences.
trying to obtain an hour or two of sleep. As well as being in the
Life on the Western Front During World War One A dispassionate look at the numbers of the horrendous casualties sustained by the armies of the Allies and the Central Powers on the Western Front in WW1, clearly indicate that these casualties figures are far inferior to what might be anticipated if, indeed, total war had reigned in every location, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and along all the 475 miles of trenches that extended from the North Sea to Switzerland. A couple of simple examples will readily make the case. Imagine two front-line trenches separated by only 20 to 30 yards of ‘No Man’s Land’ (in some extraordinary situations, distances were even less). A determined and prolonged effort by a few hand-grenade bombers on either side could make any hope of a sustained tenancy quite impossible. Again, given the accuracy and rapidity which trench mortars could be deployed against routinely manned trenches (one battalion per 1,000 yards) and their associated dug-outs, a quite short, but determined, and mutually hostile, barrage could readily reduce both trench systems to total ruin.
By 1914, everyone seemed to know that a war was on the verge of break
The Effect of World War I on Social and Economic Life in Britain The First World War changed a lot of things social and economically for Britain. These changes consisted of the diminishing international trade, the woman’s role, and changes in political issues and different attitudes to the war. I will show how far Britain’s economic and social state changed due to the war, causing negative and positive changes. Britain’s international export trade was a problem for Britain as during the war Staple industries relied heavily on exporting; they also relied on old markets such as Russia, the Far East and elsewhere which were closed to them because of the war.
As Bertrand Russell once said “War does not determine who is right - only who is left.” No one ever truly wins a wart. The horrors of war are devastating; both mentally and physically. The horror is not only ever present during life on the Frontline, it lives on in the survivors guilt. I believe that althought the horror of war is represented in the soldiers, we are all too quick to forget about the feelings of those at home, the friends and families, and the effects the war had on them. The effects of war are prominent throughtout the Novels “Regeneration” and “All quiet on the Western Front” and is also explored deeply in Wilfred Owen’s “Selected War Poetry”. Throughout these works we discover that war was inescapable for these men, they had no choice, and it+++++s events were also inescapable. We discover that the men would rather die defending their country as a hero than live with the flashbacks, the guilt, the both mental and physical scarring. They would rather lose their lives than their limbs. I find these works encompass this question fully, as it covers all angles. Pat Barker never really shows her opinion in the novel, it is more factual, and as it is based upon real events and real people it’s a reliable source of information on the horror of war and it’s effects, without bias. Erich Maria Remarque had first hand experience in the First World War, and he gives us an insight into what life on the frontline was really like. Althought fictional, I believe his suffering would have still haunted him years later, compelli...
order to have a war, you need yet more causes for that to come about,
“What is it good for, absolutely nothing, huh, war” (Edwin Starr). The Horror of war, effects of war on the soldier, and nationalism are all themes in “ All Quiet on the Western Front”. World War 1 , is basically about the war that started over the killing of the archduke Franz Ferdinand.The war then escalated between 28 countries. The novel is about a guy named Paul and his school friends who were all persuaded to enlist to fight in World War 1. Paul and his company no nothing about what war is really like. They know nothing about the horrors of war.
The Fighting on the Western Front as a War of Attrition The strategy and tactics that were employed on the Western Front are often describe as, 'attrition'; the need to put one's whole human and mechanical resources to wear down the enemy. The Fighting on the western front consisted of advanced technological warfare that relied heavily upon artillery, machine guns, tanks and gas, which characterises a 'war of attrition'. Source 19.J indicates the importance of firepower in winning battles whilst source 19.K further compliments the idea of a 'war of attrition' by depicting the emphasis placed upon tanks despite their apparent initial failure. The western front was too represented by the common held and often out-dated belief that numerical manpower would prove to be the determining factor in victory.
the shirt he had taken off and put it on the floor it actually lifted;
we have no means of knowing if what he wrote was true or not. He may